Musician Mac The Nhan: Old love only has residual sound left

Musician Mac The Nhan has returned to the motherland, as the name of his famous song Tra toi ve. He passed away at 4:00 p.m. on August 8, 2025 at his home in Ho Chi Minh City, at the age of 86.

In my youth nearly 60 years ago, I was immersed in the smooth bolero melody, imbued with the homeland flavor of the song " Tra toi ve" by composer Mac The Nhan composed : Please take me back to those poetic old days . Sitting under the thatched roof in the afternoon, watching the clouds drift by . Mother in the countryside cooking in the poor kitchen, the smell of straw wafting through the hazy smoke . Oh, the affectionate love of the countryside...

By fate, I later became a reporter for the arts and had the opportunity to interview him at his home on Ha Huy Giap Street, Thanh Loc Ward, District 12 (now An Phu Dong Ward), Ho Chi Minh City. Mac The Nhan's real name is Phan Cong Thiet, born in 1939 in this ancestral land. At the age of 17, he entered the Saigon General Music and Dance School and studied with famous musicians such as Tham Oanh, Hung Lan... "Ha Son", he joined the Hoa Nien band, then collaborated with the Xuan Binh band specializing in accompanying music on the radio. His first song was Trang que huong (Homeland Moon ) (1958), then Vui tan anh lua (1959)... Not only active in music , he was also a journalist for modern opera. The stage name "Mac The Nhan" according to him means "Contribute a drop of ink to life", not "Mackeno" in a negative sense...

Musician Mac The Nhan

Photo: Family provided

N THE BLESSED WOMEN IN LIFE

Sitting and talking to me was an old man with white hair. He showed off pictures of himself when he was young, looking very handsome…

He told me about the birth of the songs he composed. When his first love passed away in a traffic accident, he cried for her: … Lullaby, lullaby to sleep. That twenty-year-old dream of Nam Kha, this distant cloud. Lullaby, lullaby to sleep sweetly. Caressing my weak hands, pulling time back… ( Sleep Well , 1968).

During the time teaching music to singer Huong Lan (1970), his heart was moved again. At that time, in Huong Lan's house, there was a girl named Vo Thi Lan Anh. She admired the voice of the "child prodigy" Huong Lan so much that she came from Nha Trang to Huong Lan's house in Saigon to be friends, and then... stayed there. The musician and the girl stayed there "in love as before, but still shy on the outside" because he already had a family at that time. Then they broke up, Lan Anh returned to Nha Trang. Not long after, the musician received a pink invitation from her announcing their upcoming wedding. Too sad, Mac The Nhan opened his heart to write the song " Em ve voi nguoi" , a tango habanera song with a Hue accent, because Lan Anh was from Hue: "Now it's over. Em ve vui ben no yonder ...", he wanted to send a message to that person: I don't blame you, if anything, I blame my own life. I didn't keep you for long, letting you miss your first love...

Cover of the song "Pay Me Back"

The song "Em ve voi nguoi" was very popular with the public. A few months later, Mac The Nhan continued writing the song " Cho em hoa long" . The song was finished but there were some parts that were not satisfactory, so he asked musician Nhat Ngan for comments. Nhat Ngan revised a few parts and changed the song title to "Cho hoa long em " and signed with the same name Phan Tran - a combination of two surnames: Phan (Cong Thiet) and Tran (Nhat Ngan). That is also the origin of the song with the lyrics: "That's it, we've been apart, since the red firecrackers and strong wine. You go your way, I go my way, the old love only has leftover sounds... I came back to collect your letters, thousands of thin, green pages. I gathered the old cold clothes and burned them to ashes . The two men Phan - Tran also signed their names together under the songs "Mot lan dang dot", "Om han tinh toi", "Cho nguoi van cong chien"...

The musician still remembers the rainy afternoons when he drove singer Truc Mai to the bus station in front of Cao Dong Hung theater (Ba Chieu)... which inspired him to compose the song " Afternoon rain, I take you home " and 10 songs of "Tuong tu"... Waiting for you this afternoon, the sun kisses the long street. People pass by in pairs, listening to the sadness drifting away... ( Tuong tu 3).

Cover of the song "I Come Back to You"

After that interview, I often met him at the year-end meetings of the Music Copyright Protection Center (southern branch), the year-end meetings of the Tao Ngo Bang Huynh group (a gathering of musicians, composers, singers, artists... of old Saigon) or meetings with singer Che Linh when this famous singer returned to the country... Because he lived in the suburbs and was in poor health, at such meetings, he was often taken by his son, Phan Anh, on a motorbike. After a while without seeing him, I called Phan Anh and he said that the musician had a stroke, had just returned from the hospital, was still very weak and could not answer the phone. It has been 5 years since that day, and today I received the bad news that he had passed away.

Mac The Nhan - as he defined "contributed a little ink to life". Yes, he not only contributed a little but squeezed out for life all the drops of love, drops of deep affection...

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhac-si-mac-the-nhan-yeu-thuong-xua-chi-con-am-thua-185250809201129009.htm